Do I need Gaming Services & GameInput?

PakRatJR said:

My recent experience with the xbox/gaming services...

Gaming services is not needed for Steam but it apparently is most definately needed for the xbox app. I use steam mostly but just recently I have been trying to get the xbox app working and failing misrably at it and the best I got so far is the issue is somehow related to the gaming services thing. Being that steam and every other gaming related thing EXCEPT for the xbox app has been working no problem, gaming services is not needed for them.

I would however recomend leaving them installed as you may run into issues down the road if you ever decide to do anything xbox app related.

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KirkH420 said:

Maybe someone will find this useful... None of these services are used by Steam and they can be reconfigured to only run on-demand.


The GameInput Service is used by Xbox controllers (such as the programmable Elite2). It only needs to run when using your controller and the service will start on-demand. This one can be left alone as it doesn't usually run unless you're gaming with a controller (xbox app might use it, i dunno).

GamingServices and GamingServicesNet are only used by the Xbox App and Xbox Accessories app and they are not needed for Steam gaming at all. Believe it or not GameBar doesn't actually cause these to run.

They are protected services, so changes must be made through the registry. Be sure to export a backup copy of the keys that you are about to edit and only those keys (you really shouldn't backup the entire registry and try to re-import that).

Navigate to following keys:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServices\
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServicesNet\
*Find the value named "Start" and change it's data to "3" (manual startup mode).
*Do this for both keys.

Navigate to the following key:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\GamingServices\TriggerInfo
*Delete this key
*This changes service startup from "Manual Trigger" to just "Manual".

With the above configuration, GamingServices and GamingServicesNet will NOT start with Windows. When games are launched through Steam, the Elite2 xbox controller works fine and these 2 services do NOT run. When my controller connects, it will launch GameBar and not GamingServices. The Xbox Accessories app is be able to launch these 2 services on-demand and the app works as expected when i need to re-configure Elite2 controller custom bindings. I do not have the Xbox App installed so I cannot verify if it is able to start these services on demand, but I assume it can.

*Be aware that windows update may eventually cause these configurations to be reset to default.

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